Two weeks ago on Monday the 5th, we picked up all of our fur babies from boarding and said goodbye to Georgia as we began our journey west. We decided we wanted to cram as much of our stuff as humanly possible into our smaller sized sedan since we had decided to do a partial-DITY, which included 90% of hubby's gear. The trunk was packed to the brim. We had items covering half of the back seat as well as in the floor behind both of our seats. There were a few items at the floor at my feat on the passenger's side of the car. And lastly, we had a soft-pack roof top carrier loaded up above (and tied down to our car with ropes that wrapped around and were knotted inside).
It made for a cramped car (especially with three animals and the two of us inside) and kind of sucky gas mileage, but we've had easy access to most anything we'd really need or want until we are able to move into a place and receive our household goods delivery.
On our first night we stayed at a hotel in Mobile, AL, and the next morning as we went outside to load the car back up in prep for check-out, we stumbled across the Batmobile nestled in the back of a Warner Brothers Studio truck. And upon further inspection of the truck, we also saw Batman's motorcycle inside.
Guests and employees of the hotel, along with employees of the neighboring hospital, all made their way outside to get the same pictures we snapped. It's not something you see everyday!
For the most part our pets were fairly well behaved over the course of the three day drive. When we first began on day one, the dogs kept bouncing around and the cat wouldn't stop crying, but eventually they all calmed down and were good until the end of day three when we finally arrived in San Antonio.
We made it to Fort Sam Houston last Wednesday the 7th, and before we even checked into a hotel, hubby decided he first wanted to check in with his unit to let them know he arrived and to find out how everything was going to work from then on out. This meant that I was then stuck in the car for a couple HOURS with the kids, getting funny looks from all of the soldiers who walked past our car.
Hubby got a quick orientation with his unit before being told he didn't have to report until Tuesday morning PT, following the four-day weekend for Veteran's Day. We were excited by this as it meant we could get a jump start on house hunting on his unexpected free days off, well before he would be approved for permissive TDY to secure housing.
After meeting with the housing office first thing Thursday morning, we started hitting the town and looking at houses available for rent that we had found online. We quickly crossed off several houses after seeing the upkeep of the exteriors and the neighborhoods, or rather lack thereof, and then also found several houses we were interested in looking at further and began contacting realtors.
We looked at the inside of four or five different houses in different neighborhoods over the course of two days (not to mention drove by and checked out from the outside another 15 or so places) before we decided on one that we absolutely love! It has over twice the square footage of our previous apartment and met our requirements of a minimum of three bedrooms/two bathrooms, fenced-in backyard, nice kitchen, and garage.
After deciding that would be the house we'd submit an application on, we decided to relax a little bit and do some of the touristy things in San Antonio before officially becoming residents. Friday afternoon and most of Saturday were spent in downtown San Antonio, checking out the Rivercenter Mall, The Alamo, and the Riverwalk.
We ended up spending the full 10 days of temporary lodging we were authorized living out of our suitcases in a hotel room before we finally received approval on the house we applied for. After two weeks of hotel stays and eating out at just about every chain restaurant out there (and getting absolutely tired of it), we were very excited to escape nomad life at the end of this past week and finally move into our new home!
We got into our house this weekend, and the movers were able to quickly come out and delivered our HHG shipment yesterday morning. So now I am absolutely swamped with unpacking our house, scheduling appointments for various items (we won't have internet set up at the house for over another week still), updating our residence with all necessary parties, and oh yeah, that pesky little item of trying to find a new job. After two months of unemployment, I am going rather stir crazy and miss being a contributing member of society.
